The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
