The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
