The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. 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 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.