Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.