World Series Final Game Captures 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
