The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
