The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel 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 after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
