The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
