The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
