The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
