The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
