The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
