The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
