The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.