The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic 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 increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
