The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
