The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
