Fall Classic Game 7 Captures 51M Audience Members Across the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
