The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
