The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
