The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
