The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
