World Series Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
