The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their 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 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
