The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
