Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
