World Series Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.