The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
