The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as 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 marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total 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 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
