The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
