The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
