The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
