The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
