The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
