The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
