The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
