The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
