The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
