The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
