The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
