The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
