The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
