The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
