World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
