The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
