Fall Classic Final Game Draws Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
