The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
