The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
