World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the US, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, 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 top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
