The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 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 complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
