The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
