The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
