The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
