The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members 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 week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise 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 consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.