The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
