The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, 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 since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
