Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership 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 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.