Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
