The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
