The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
