The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
