World Series Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
