The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
