The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
