The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
