The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks 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 Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
