The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
