The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
