The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
