The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox 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 most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
