The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
