The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers 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 stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
