The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
