The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
