The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
