The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
