The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
