The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
