The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
