Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
