The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
