The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
