Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
