Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
