The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
