Fall Classic Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
