Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
