The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
