The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
