The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
