World Series Final Game Captures Over 50 Million Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
