The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
