The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
