Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Viewers In the US, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
