The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final 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 innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
