The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average 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 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
