The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
