The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
