World Series Final Game Captures 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.