The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
