The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
