The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
