The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 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 World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
