The exciting extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
