The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
