The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
