The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
