The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
