The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
