The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
