World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
