The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
