World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
