The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
