The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
