The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
