The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
