World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
