World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the US, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
