Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
