The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
