The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
