The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
