The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
