The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
