The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 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 and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
