The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
