The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
