World Series Game 7 Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.