The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership 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 over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
