The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
