The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
