The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
