The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
