The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
