Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. 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 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
