The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
