The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
