World Series Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
