The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete 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 after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.