World Series Game 7 Draws Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over 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 sixteen various languages.
