The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
