The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
