The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
