Fall Classic Game 7 Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
