Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.