Fall Classic Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
