Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – 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 Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
