World Series Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
