World Series Game 7 Draws 51 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
