The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
