The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
