Fall Classic Game 7 Draws Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
