Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 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 complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
