The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per 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 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
