The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
