Fall Classic Game 7 Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
