World Series Game 7 Captures 51 Million Audience Members In the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
