The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
