Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The exciting extended clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network 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 contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
