The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
