World Series Final Game Captures 51 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
