World Series Final Game Captures 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, 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 seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
