The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
