The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
