World Series Final Game Draws 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous 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 forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
