The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.