The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
