Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.