Fall Classic Final Game Draws Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
