The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
