The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
