The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
