The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
