The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
