The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
