The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
