The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
