Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japan Regions.
The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
