Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51M Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
