The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
