The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, 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 since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
