The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, 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 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
