The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
