Fall Classic Final Game Captures Over 50 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average 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 eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
