The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
