The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
