World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
