The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
