The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
