Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
