The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
