The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
