World Series Final Game Draws 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one 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 Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
