The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
