Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
