The nail-biting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
