The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
