The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
