Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51M Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
