The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
