The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
