The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over 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 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, 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 Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
