The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
