The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise 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 seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
