Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
