The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
