The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
