The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous 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, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M 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 recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
