The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
