Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
