The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
