The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
