The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
