The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
