The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
