The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
