The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
