Fall Classic Game 7 Draws Over 50 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
