The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
