The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
