The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
