The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
