The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
