The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
