The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
