The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.