World Series Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
