The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
