The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
