Fall Classic Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
