The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
