The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million 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 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
