The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
