The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
