The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
