The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
