The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
