The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
