The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
