The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
