The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
