The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
