The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
