The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
