The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
