The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic 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 over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
