The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
