The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed 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 Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
