The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
