The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 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 since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
