Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51M Audience Members Across the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
