The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
