The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
