The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
