The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
