The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
