Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.