The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
