The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
