The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
