The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
