The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
