The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was 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 averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
