The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
