The exciting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
