The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
