The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
