World Series Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers In the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Fridayโs Game 6 โ where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings โ averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last yearโs Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and โ16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the networkโs best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
