World Series Game 7 Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports 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 additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
