Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
