The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series 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 over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
