The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 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 weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
