The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
