The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
