The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
