The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
