The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
