The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
