The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
