World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
