The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition 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 followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
