The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
