The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
