The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
