The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
