The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
