The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
