The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
