The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
