The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
