The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
