The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
