Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
