The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series 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 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
