The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their 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 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
