The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
