The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
