The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
