Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
