The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
