The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
