The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
