The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
