The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
