Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
