The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
