The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
