The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
