The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
