The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
