The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
