The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
