The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
