The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
