The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
