The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
