The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
