The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
