Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
