The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
