The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
