The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
