World Series Final Game Captures 51 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
