The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 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 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
