The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
