The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
