The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles 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 drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
