The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous 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 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
