The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase 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 opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
