Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51M Viewers In the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M 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 ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
