The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
