The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
