The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
