The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
