The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members 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 most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
