The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
