The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM 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 allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
