The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
