The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
