Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
