The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
