The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
