The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
