The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
