The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
