World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japan Markets.

The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.

Television Ratings Breakdown

The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.

It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.

In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.

Global Audience Numbers

In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.

In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.

Overall Averages and Patterns

The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.

Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.

The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.

MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.