World Series Final Game Captures Over 50 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
