Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
