The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
