The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
