The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
