The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest 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 highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
