The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
