The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
