World Series Game 7 Draws 51M Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. 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 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.