The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
