The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the 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 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
