The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
