Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51M Viewers Across the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.