The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
