The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
