The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
