The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
