The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
