The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
