The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
