The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
