The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
