The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
