The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
