The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
