The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
