The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
