The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
