The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
