World Series Game 7 Draws 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
