The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
