The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.