Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
