The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market 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 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
