The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
