The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
