The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
