Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
