The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
