The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
