The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
