The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
