The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
