The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
