The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
