World Series Final Game Attracts 51 Million Audience Members In the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
