The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match 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 first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
