The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
