Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
