The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US 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 complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.