World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
