The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
