Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
