The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
