The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
