The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
