The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
