The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
