The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
