The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
