The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also 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 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
