The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
