The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
