The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
