World Series Game 7 Captures 51M Viewers In the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
