The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
