The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
