The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
