The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
