The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
