The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
