The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
