The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
