The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
