The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
