The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
