The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
