The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
