The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason 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 languages.
