The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
