The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
