The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
