The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
