The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M 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 Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
