The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. 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 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
