The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
