The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
