Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic 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 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.