The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
