World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
