The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
