The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
