World Series Ratings Roundup: Game 7 Is Most Watched Baseball Game of Any Kind Since 1991

The Chicago Cubs championship-clinching epic 8-7, extra-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 of the World Series Wednesday night on FOX delivered a massive 21.8/37 household rating/share with an average of 40.045 million viewers. The telecast is now the most-watched baseball game of any kind since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins (50.3 million viewers). It ranks as the most-watched baseball telecast in FOX Sports’ history and is FOX’s highest-rated and most-watched telecast of any kind since the NFC Championship in January 2016.

Compared to World Series Game 7 in 2014 between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals, last night’s game showed a +70% gain on average audience (40.0 million vs. 23.5 million) and a +58% increase in household rating (vs. 13.7/22). The telecast peaked with a 27.1/48 household rating with 49.9 million viewers between 11:30 PM – 11:45 PM ET.

World Series Game 7 on Wednesday night also outperformed 2014’s Game 7 by a wide margin in all of the key male demographics, including M12-17 (+83%; 7.7 vs. 4.2), M18-34 (+81%; 12.5 vs. 6.9), M18-49 (+75%; 14.9 vs. 8.5), and M25-54 (+72%; 16.7 vs. 9.7). In A18-49, Game 7 is up +91% compared to 2014 (12.6 vs. 6.6). As of last night, FOX is now the No. 1 network among A18-49 this season, with the 2016 World Series ranking as the No. 1 primetime program in all of television (LSD). Last night’s contest projects to be FOX’s best Wednesday night ever in primetime.

Between FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports GO, World Series Game 7 delivered a combined average of 40.9 million viewers. FOX Sports estimates that more than 75 million viewers tuned in to see all-or-part of the Cubs’ dramatic Game 7 victory on Wednesday night.

Highest Rated World Series Since 2004
The 2016 World Series on FOX averaged a whoppoing 13.1/23 rating/share and 23.4 million viewers, ranking as the highest-rated and most-watched World Series since 2004’s 15.8/26 and 25.4 million viewers for the Boston Red Sox-St. Louis Cardinals series (four games). Combining average audiences for each of the seven games, more than 115 million viewers watched all-or-part of the 2016 World Series on FOX and FOX Deportes.

Compared to the 2014 World Series that also went a full seven games, the 2016 Fall Classic showed a +60% increase over 2014’s average rating/share (13.1/23 vs. 8.2/14) and a +70% gain in average audience (23.4 million viewers vs. 13.8 million viewers).

This year’s World Series audience also delivered significant increases among younger viewers, including males 12-17, a demographic that produced a +105% increase over last year’s performance (3.9 vs. 1.9) and was Fox’s best rating in the demo during the World Series since 2007 (4.0).

Game-by-game ratings/shares and audience average figures for this year’s World Series are as follows:

FOX Deportes
Wednesday night’s Game 7 on FOX Deportes averaged 565,000 viewers, the most-watched baseball game and most-watched non-soccer sporting event in Spanish language sports network history. That figures also marks a +51% increase over World Series Game 7 in 2014 (vs. 373,000 viewers).

FOX Sports GO & Social Media
On the digital front, FOX Sports GO added an average minute audience of 343,865 viewers for last night’s telecast, according to Adobe Analytics, a new record average minute audience for an authenticated event.

More than 18 million Tweets were sent about the #WorldSeries, including 10.5 million Tweets in the thrilling Game 7 finale, both Twitter records for a World Series and a @MLB game. Here are the moments that generated the biggest peaks of Twitter conversation during the series — all of which came in the final game — measured in Tweets per minute (TPM): 1 – End of Game 7: the @Cubs win the 2016 World Series; 2 – @Indians outfielder Rajai Davis (@rajai11davis) hits game tying 2-run home run in the 8th inning; 3 – Ben Zobrist (@benzobrist18) double gives Cubs 7-6 lead in the 10th inning

Here are the most-mentioned @Cubs players on Twitter, led by Aroldis Chapman, since the series began: 1 – Aroldis Chapman (@AChapman_105); 2 – Kris Bryant (@KrisBryant_23); 3 – Kyle Schwarber (@kschwarb12)

Big Numbers Up North As Well
In Canada, Game 7 handed Sportsnet its largest World Series audience in network history, with an average audience of 2.66 million viewers tuning into the broadcast. Sportsnet’s previous all-time most-watched World Series game was Game 7 of the 2014 World Series (San Francisco @ Kansas City: 1.24 million average audience).

Overall, 7.89 million Canadians watched some part of Game 7 on Sportsnet. Audience levels peaked at 3.9 million viewers at 11:50 p.m. ET in the bottom of the 9th inning.

The 2016 World Series also set a record for Sportsnet as the most-watched World Series in network history, delivering an average audience of 1.26 million viewers (2+). This marks an increase of 44% over the 2015 World Series average audience (879,000), the previous most-watched World Series on record.

The Fall Classic, in conjunction with the start of the 2016-17 NHL regular season and the rest of the MLB Postseason, bolstered Sportsnet to close out October as the network’s best month to date in 2016 and second best month ever. Delivering a 9.7 audience share and an average audience of 405,000 (2+), Sportsnet delivered more than twice the share and twice the average audience of its closest competitor in October. Sportsnet was the second most-watched Canadian network in prime time and the third most-watched Canadian network overall in October (conventional and specialty combined).It also continues its reign as Canada’s highest-ranked specialty channel.