The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
