The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
