The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
