Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
