The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
