World Series Final Game Captures 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japan Regions.
The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.