The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
