The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network 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 averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
