The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
