The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
