The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
