World Series Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s 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 after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
