World Series Game 7 Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, 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 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
