The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
