The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M 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 stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
