The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game 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 Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
