Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Viewers In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
