The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
