The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
