World Series Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
