The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after 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 Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
