The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
