Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
