The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
