The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
