Saturday night's epic Game 7 closed out a thrilling World Series and drew baseball's biggest television audience in eight years.
According to early numbers from Nielsen, the Los Angeles Dodgers' 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in 11 innings brought in an average of 25.98 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox Sports. Viewership peaked between 11:30-11:45 p.m. to 31.54 million as both teams tried to find what would prove to be the World Series-clinching run.
More detailed numbers are expected on Tuesday, but Fox Sports is already trumpeting what looks to be an incredible success. The last broadcast to deliver such a number was Game 7 of the 2017 Fall Classic between the Houston Astros and Dodgers, which came in at 28.29 million viewers.
While any headline about historic viewership is welcomed with open arms by baseball, this one is especially impressive considering that these numbers do not include the massive Canadian audience tuned into the event.
It's hard to imagine two teams working together to create more spectacular drama—and more of it—than what the Blue Jays and Dodgers were able to put together. Avoiding any overlap with the NFL and getting a showcase for Game 7 against a weaker college football primetime slate helped push the number even higher.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Thrilling World Series Game 7 Brings Enormous Ratings to Fox.