The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
