The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
