Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
