The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
