Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51M Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japan Regions.
The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
