The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
