The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
