The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
