The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
