The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
