The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
