The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
