World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
