The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
