The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
