The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
