Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
