Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
