Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
