World Series Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
