World Series Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japan Regions.
The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player 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.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
