The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
