The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 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 Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
