The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network 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 deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
