Fall Classic Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.