Fall Classic Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
