The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
