The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
