The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
