The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
