The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
