The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
