The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
