World Series Game 7 Captures 51M Viewers Across the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
