Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
