The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.