World Series Game 7 Draws 51 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
