The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
