The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
