The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
