The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
