The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
