World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
