The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
