The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
