The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
